We the
People.
From the Declaration of Independence to the Constitution and the speeches that defined American liberty. Faithfully preserved, beautifully organized, and free for every citizen.
50+ primary sources
across 250 years of history.
The founding record without the noise, organized so any citizen can read, cite, and understand it.
The Work That Built a Nation
The documents most often read, cited, and remembered. The perfect place to begin.
Declaration of Independence
We hold these truths to be self-evident… the bold announcement of a free and independent people.
The Constitution
We the People of the United States… the supreme law that divides and balances power.
The Bill of Rights
The first ten amendments: speech, faith, and assembly secured for every generation.
The Gettysburg Address
…a new birth of freedom. Two minutes that redefined the purpose of the nation.
Marbury v. Madison
The decision that established judicial review and the Court’s power to interpret the Constitution.
Brown v. Board of Education
The unanimous ruling that struck down “separate but equal” in America’s public schools.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.
The Declaration of Independence · 1776
Five collections, nearly 250 years.
Founding Documents
The Declaration, the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution, and the Federalist Papers.
The Bill of Rights & Amendments
All 27 amendments to the Constitution, organized by era.
Speeches & Addresses
From Washington’s Farewell to “I Have a Dream.”
Civil Rights & Reform
The documents and laws that expanded equality and the vote.
Landmark Supreme Court Cases
The decisions that gave the Constitution its meaning.
The Authors of the Republic
The architects, advocates, and orators who wrote the American idea into being.
Thomas Jefferson
Distilled the Enlightenment into a single self-evident creed in 1776.
James Madison
Chief architect of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights; co-author of the Federalist Papers.
Alexander Hamilton
Drove the case for the Constitution, writing 51 of the 85 Federalist essays.
Abraham Lincoln
Redefined the nation’s purpose at Gettysburg and freed the enslaved by proclamation.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Extended “all men are created equal” to women at Seneca Falls in 1848.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Carried the founding promise to its fulfillment with “I Have a Dream.”
Read the words
that made history.
The founding texts of the United States, faithful and free for all. Liberty begins with knowing what you stand for.
America’s DocsThe primary-source library of the United States. Faithful transcriptions of the documents that built a nation.
Texts adapted from the U.S. National Archives, the Avalon Project, and the National Constitution Center.
E Pluribus Unum